International Step by Step Association

In 2013, the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) surveyed its 40 member organizations on early childhood care and education services being offered in their countries to children under 3 years of age and their families. Results showed that children’s and families’ access to these services had decreased since the 1990s and that where they did exist, the quality in many locations was low. This prompted ISSA to develop a Quality Framework for Early Childhood Practices in Services for Children Under Three Years of Age -primarily for its members. The Framework not only presents the most current information on how to work with this age level, but also includes information on why and how different services should work more inter-sectorally. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the ISSA Quality Framework and to describe some the challenges and lessons learned in the process of its development. It also describes the lessons learnt by three ISSA member organizations which piloted the Framework to explore how it could be used to support policies, governance and practices with under-3 year olds in different countries.